Cyrus Farivar

Journalist Cyrus Farivar knows a thing or two about surveillance. While reporting for Ars Technica, Farivar got the entire license plate reader dataset from the Oakland Police Department -- that’s all of the license plate scans they recorded and saved -- from December 2010 to May 2014. He says Oakland has no official policy for how long they keep all of that information. And, he says, it’s not the only problematic surveillance technique being used in the city, or across the state. Farivar came into our studios to talk about his reporting with KALW’s Sandhya Dirks.

Life of the Law: Privacy Issues Mike Katz-Lacabe is a normal, taxpaying, married, father of two. And yet, the San Leandro police department has what amounts to a family photo album of him and his car. If you drive a car and live in an American city, your local police department probably has an album of you, too.